Mali crisis: US admits mistakes in training local troops

The US military commander in Africa says the Pentagon made mistakes in its training of Malian troops now trying to oust Islamists from the north.

Gen Carter Ham of United States Africa Command (Africom) said its forces had failed to train Malian troops on “values, ethics and a military ethos”.

He spoke after reports of abuses by Mali government troops taking part in the French-led counter-offensive.

Meanwhile, air strikes have been reported near the northern city of Gao.

The militant stronghold came under fire as the military operation entered its third week.

Islamists seized the north of Mali last year and have imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, on its inhabitants.

France intervened militarily on 11 January to stop them advancing further south.

However, human rights groups have since accused Malian troops of killing Arabs and ethnic Tuaregs as they advance north.

The claims caused alarm in the West, particularly in the US, which has been training troops in Mali and neighbouring countries to tackle the militant threat for several years.

Gen Ham said Malian troops were given plenty of tactical training, but not enough ethics training.

“We were focusing our training almost exclusively on tactical or technical matters,” he told a forum at Washington’s Howard University on Thursday.

“We didn’t spend probably the requisite time focusing on values, ethics and a military ethos.”

The general said not enough was done to convince Malian recruits that “when you put on the uniform of your nation, you accept the responsibility to defend and protect that nation, to abide by the legitimate civilian authority that has been established, to conduct yourselves according to the rule of law”.